One of the more popular hockey gear manufacturers in Europe, Frontier Hockey is making their way to making a dent in the North American hockey market. Along with the United States, their largest markets are Russia and Sweden. With their European base in Estonia, they feature wood and composite sticks for both players and goalies. For those who prefer 2-piece sticks, they offer shafts and replacement blades of various materials and curves. They were gracious enough to send us a few sticks to review courtesy of their US distributor Montreal Hockey. The first one we will profile is the PRO 9985G Forceback goalie stick.
Their top Polyurethane Foam constructed stick, the PRO 9985G Forceback stick is used by many of the top goalies playing in European leagues. Among those are Fedrik Norrena of Ak Bars Kazan in the KHL. It’s the lightest wood stick they have, and compared to the 9975-G stick it has a softer blade and paddle. This is designed to achieve light weight, balance and dynamic handling.
Their reinforced shaft is made of Carbon Fiberglass Laminate. The paddle surface is 100% Carbon Fabric, meaning it’s constructed to take a beating while playing in goal. What’s unique about this stick is the Texalium blade. It’s just as strong as fiberglass but it is woven with a silver metallic material for strength and cosmetic appearance.
The stick comes painted in black with white lettering and trim. It also comes stamped with the IIHF seal of approval for play in their leagues and tournaments. The 59″ stick comes in four different paddle lengths: 25.5″, 26″, 27″ and 28″. There are also four blade patterns available.
I have the 28″ stick with the less pronounced NH-PRO blade pattern. Check back in a few weeks for a full review of the stick. In the meantime you can check this and their other pro-line goalie sticks here.
